Lightning mystery - I was there

摘要

I read with great interest the article 'Foxtrot 94' in the July issue, as I was one of the pilots on the 120 Squadron Shackleton Mk.Ⅲ WR981 which was the target aircraft for the ill-fated flight of Captain William Schaffner in Lightning XS894 on the evening of Tuesday September 8,1970. Our briefing for the day was to conduct a routine maritime surveillance sortie in the Skagerrak and Kattegat area [roughly between Denmark, Sweden and Norway - ed], then at dusk to switch the IFF to standby, but keep the navigation lights 'on', and proceed down the North Sea at 1,500 feet to a holding position between Spurn Head and Flamborough Head. We in the maritime world had yet to undergo the rigours of 'Taceval' [tactical evaluation] and, in fact knew very little about it. Neither Taceval nor Binbrook had been mentioned in our sortie brief, the Form Green.